Method of manufacturing envelopes containing free inserts

ABSTRACT

Envelopes containing free or substantially free inserts are manufactured on conventional envelope machines by applying a disintegrating adhesive between the blank and insert to hold the insert in position on the blank while the blank is driven through the machine and envelope forming flaps are folded therearound. The envelope containing the insert may be manufactured with the seal flap either open or sealed and with or without a window opening to expose the insert.

lJnited States Patent Dunne [54] METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ENVELOPES CONTAINING FREE IINSEIRTS [451 Jan. M, 1972 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,460,743 8/1969 Burnett ..229/7O 2,209,601 6/1940 Heywood... 229/71 2,703,043 3/1955 Novick et a1... .....93/6l 3,400,641 9/1968 Stemmler ..93/6l Primary Examiner-Theron E. Condon Assistant ExaminerNeil Abrams Attorney-Fishburn, Gold and Litman [57] ABSTRACT Envelopes containing free or substantially free inserts are manufactured on conventional envelope machines by applying a disintegrating adhesive between the blank and insert to hold the insert in position on the blank while the blank is driven through the machine and envelope forming flaps are folded therearound. The envelope containing the insert may be manufactured with the seal flap either open or sealed and with or without a window opening to expose the insert.

1 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEB JAMS SHEET 2 [IF 2 WW MI... mm

INVENTOR. EDWARD A. DUNNE ggiwym kldfi I ATTORNEYS METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ENVELOPES CONTAINING FREE INSERTS This invention relates to the manufacture of envelopes and more particularly to the automatic manufacture of envelopes containing inserts on conventional envelope making machinery.

Heretofore, without expensive special forming or inserting machinery, in order to manufacture envelopes containing a free enclosure or insert, such as circulars, coupons and the like, it was necessary to tediously insert same into preformed envelopes by hand followed by closing the seal flaps. In accordance with the present invention, envelopes containing free or substantially free inserts are manufactured quickly and inexpensively on conventional envelope forming machinery after only minor modifications thereto.

In the practice of this invention, a disintegrating adhesive or gum is used to adhere the insert in a desired position on the inside surface of the envelope blank as it passes through a conventional envelope machine, the disintegrating adhesive being sufficiently active and tenacious to retain the insert on the blank at least until the envelope forming flaps are folded therearound, but concurrently or shortly thereafter decomposing, leaving the insert free or substantially free for later removal from the envelope without any defacing.

The principal objects of the present invention are: to provide a method of manufacturing envelopes containing free or substantially free inserts which may be practiced on a conventional envelope machine with only minor modifications thereof; to provide such a method and modified conventional apparatus which will selectively produce sealed envelopes, envelopes with the seal flap open but ready for sealing, and/or window envelopes, all containing such an insert; to provide a method which is simple to practice, easy to adapt to conventional machines and does not substantially interfere with the speed of normal operations thereof; and to provide envelopes manufactured on a slightly modified conventional containing a free or substantially free insert.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of this inventron.

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, diagrammatic longitudinal section through a portion of a conventional envelope making machine adapted in the practice of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing various operations on an envelope blank in the practice of this invention.

FIG. 3 shows a finished envelope made in accordance with the operations of FIG. 2 and with a portion broken away to show an insert contained therein.

FIG. 4 is a partial flow diagram showing modified operations on an envelope blank so as to manufacture window envelopes in accordance with this invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a finished window envelope containing an insert.

Referring to the drawings in more detail:

The reference numeral 1 generally indicates a portion of a conventional envelope forming and printing machine such as a Winkler and Dunnebier Helios Type 229 adapted for the practice of this invention. The machine 1, as in normal operation, carries a stack of blanks 2 on a support 3 and means 4 are provided for withdrawing the blanks one-at-a-time from the bottom of the stack for delivery around a series of rollers 5 during which time the blanks may be printed on the relative faces thereof by printing mechanisms 6 and 7. If window envelopes are desired, the blanks 2 may have window openings cut therethrough by conventional cutting rollers 8 and 9 or the blanks may have the window openings precut therein prior to feeding into the machine.

From the printing and window cutting sections, the blanks 2 move in a path defined by the machine 1 to a conventional window gumming station 10 where the blanks are contacted by gum applicators or pickers 11 carried by a rotor 12. The applicators 11 are supplied with gum by means of a transfer machine roller 13 which receives the operating in a gum receptacle 15. The application of gum at the station 10 is conventional except that the pattern 16 (FIG. 2) of gum application is suitably designed to advantageously secure inserts 17 to the inner face of the blank, as discussed further below, and the gum or adhesive 18 is of a type which will dissolve or disintegrate under desired conditions at, or shortly following, the completion of the envelope.

The blanks 2, following application of the gum 18 in the pattern 16, are advanced from the station 10 by the usual gripping cylinder 19. In this example, the cylinder 19 has ports 20 through which suction is created to grip and hold the blank in contact with the peripheral face of the cylinder for carrying the blank therewith to a patching station 21 where, normally, a patch (cut from a roll) would be applied over a window opening for adherence by the gum applied at the station 10, however, in the practice of this invention, inserts 17 are applied over the disintegrating adhesive pattern 16. In this example, the inserts l7 arefed into the patching station 21 one-ata-time from a stack 22. The leading edge of the lowermost insert 17 in the stack 22 is exposed, in the conventional blankfeed manner, to a dagger 23 and sucker 24 which cooperate to place the insert edge in the path of a cutout gripping roller 25. The roller 25, through operation with vacuum ports 26 and a bight roller 27, pulls the lowermost insert from beneath the stack 22 and transfers same to an applicator roller 28 which lays the insert on the disintegrating gum pattern 16.

A transfer roller 29 then picks up the blank with the insert 17 temporarily adhered thereto and deposits same on a discharge roller 30 which carries the combination to subsequent known gumming and forming portions of the machine (not shown). The subsequent operations are diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 2 and such operations are entirely conventional except as discussed below.

If it is desired to produce insert containing envelopes with a gummed seal flap 31 folded but unsealed, seal flap gum is applied in the conventional manner at 32 in the flow diagram of FIG. 2 and the seal flap gum is dried through exposure to heat in a tunnel along the path 33. In this case side flap gum will be applied only on the lower edge portions of the side flaps at 34 in the conventional manner.

On the other hand, if it is desired to envelopes containing the inserts 17, no seal flap gum is applied at 32 and heat is applied at 33 only if such heat is desired to promote the disintegration of the adhesive 18. Seal gum is applied, however, not only to the lower free edge portions of the triangular side flaps at 34 but also to the upper free edge portions of the side flaps at 35, whereby upon folding the bottom flap 36 upwardly along the normal score line 37, and folding the upper or seal flap 31 downwardly over the normal score line 38, the envelope is entirely sealed with the insert 17 contained therein.

As noted above, if desired, a window opening may be provided in the blanks fed into the machine 1 or the window opening may be cut through the blank through use of the cutting rollers 8 and 9. Concurrently with the provision of a window opening 39 (FIG. 4) in the blank, the inserts 40 preferably have an address 41 preprinted thereon in a position so that it will appear through the window opening on the finished envelope. In this case the disintegrating adhesive pattern is preferably modified as at 42 (FIG. 4) so that it does not overlap the window opening and the disintegrating adhesive is modified, as discussed below, to lightly retain the blank con tinuously in position if there is room within the envelope to permit the address on the insert to move out of register with the window opening.

It is to be understood that any suitable adhesive may be used to apply the pattern 16 or 42 so long as it disintegrates or substantially disintegrates within a reasonable time following the folding of the envelope blank flaps about the insert and, preferably, it can be applied through use of conventional applicators such as pickers. A satisfactory disintegrating adhesive may be formulated by dissolving a well-known gum such produce entirely sealed gum from a pickup roller 14 as tragacanth in water with the addition of alcohol. A specific example is tragacanth powder No. 753, 3 percent; methylated spirits (proof 74), 2% percent and water, 94% percent, although the proportions may be easily varied by one skilled in the art for particular circumstances where more or less tackiness or completeness of disintegration is desired.

This invention departs from prior art retention of inserts in alignment with window openings in that the adhesive completely or substantially disintegrates so that upon withdrawal from the envelope there is no defacing or damage to the insert and little or no evidence to the casual observer that the insert was not stuffed after the envelope was manufactured.

It is to be further understood that the disintegrating adhesive may be applied to the insert rather than the blank without departing from the broad scope of this invention and, while certain forms of this invention have been illustrated and described, it is not to be limited thereto lclaim:

l. The method of producing envelopes containing free inserts by operating upon envelope blanks in an envelope making machine of the type having a window patch section including a gum-receiving receptacle and gum applicators cooperating with said receptacle, and patch applicators for applying window patches on said blanks, comprising the steps of:

a. charging said receptacle with a substantially completely disintegrating adhesive of a type wherein the application of heat thereto promotes disintegration thereof,

b. charging said window patch section with inserts to be loosely contained in said envelopes,

c. applying said disintegrating adhesive between said blanks and inserts in said window patch section and causing contact between said blanks and inserts producing a temporary connection therebetween,

d. applying heat to said temporary adhesive connection before folding to promote the disintegration thereof, and folding said blanks after applying said heat and prior to the complete disintegration of said adhesive connection, thereby forming envelopes around said inserts, said inserts becoming substantially free within said envelopes following said folding. 

1. The method of producing envelopes containing free inserts by operating upon envelope blanks in an envelope making machine of the type having a window patch section including a gum-receiving receptacle and gum applicators cooperating with said receptacle, and patch applicators for applying window patches on said blanks, comprising the steps of: a. charging said receptacle with a substantially completely disintegrating adhesive of a type wherein the application of heat thereto promotes disintegration thereof, b. charging said window patch section with inserts to be loosely contained in said envelopes, c. applying said disintegrating adhesive between said blanks and inserts in said window patch section and causing contact between said blanks and inserts producing a temporary connection therebetween, d. applying heat to said temporary adhesive connection before folding to promote the disintegration thereof, and e. folding said blanks after applying said heat and prior to the complete disintegration of said adhesive connection, thereby forming envelopes around said inserts, said inserts becoming substantially free within said envelopes following said folding. 